"Yeah, sure. Give me the box, I'll inspect it as thoroughly as I can to see if it's safe to open," Eolande said after hearing Lone's story and request.
"Thank you, Eolande. I really hope Clicker didn't fuck us over with the promised prize, but you can never be too careful," Lone replied with a weary smile.
"I understand." Eolande then hovered over to a sofa after taking the magical box from Lone and started to create some enchantments, presumably in order to help her reveal the true nature of the box.
"So, Breena, hating Wolfs and Wolfkin. Does that sound familiar to you?" Lone asked Breena. At some point, he had stopped inspecting the jewels that Eolande had won and now all of his attention was wholly focused on his bodyguard, Breena.
"No, Master. I've met many Wolfkin and wolf-type monsters when I was still with that man and I can't say that I ever felt a strong urge to kill them," Breena replied.
"Are you sure?" Lone was hoping this wasn't a trait unique to himself.
"Absolutely, Master," Brenna nodded.
"That's so weird... maybe it's unique to Golden Foxkin? Do you have any ideas? Perhaps legends or stories you heard when you were still with the clan?" Lone asked somewhat impatiently.
"As I've said before, Master, I can't remember much from my childhood, so I can't really tell you if I heard any stories like that. I'm sorry," Breena said with sadness in her tone. She then hung her head down.
Lone stood up and patted her hair, ruffling it lightly. "Don't worry about it. It's not your fault." Lone smiled at the teenaged girl.
"M-Master..." Breena's weak and quiet voice quivered as her face turned a shade very similar to her hair colour.
Lone immediately stopped petting her. 'What the hell? I didn't activate my petting skill by mistake, did I?' Lone thought Breena's reaction was strange, so he checked, and double checked, and triple checked, but his skill was definitely not on which only added to his confusion.
"Mumumumumumumumuuuu..." A certain girl was chewing away at her sleeves in frustration as she watched Lone's interaction with Breena.
Kyuubi looked up at Sophie from within the summoning room and sighed.
"What?" Sophie angrily said to the fluffy fox at her side. "Your papa is flirting with other girls while your mama is trying her hardest to get strong! Hmmpf," she continued.
Again, Kyuubi let out a long and loud sigh.
"W-What?" Sophie asked only to be met with another sigh. "What? I trust papa, you know I do! It's just frustrating watching all of these girls look at him with those glossy eyes..." Sophie's voice gradually trailed off into mere mumblings.
Kyuubi couldn't help but sigh a final time before she closed her eyes and went to sleep, leaving the Cosmos-ranked being to herself.
Breena was sat in the corner of the room playing with her shadows as her mind pondered over what had just happened. 'That was really weird. When Master touched my head... it felt like I could sense some of his feelings. He has so much love for Sophie regardless of what else is on his mind... how overwhelming.'
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Unbeknownst to both Breena and Lone, their level five legendary contract had mutated. Some might even say that it had evolved. This was a rare occurrence, but not unheard of on Altros. It only happened when the trust held between the two participants of the contract increased by a fair amount and it strengthened the effects of the contract, meaning that Breena now had an even stronger desire to protect Lone and Sophie at all times.
Lone had returned to inspecting the jewels as he thought about his fight with the Wolfkin Adventurers. 'C-Rank, huh? It's crazy that all it took to rank up was holding myself back when I wanted to desperately kill someone,' Lone thought as he looked at his updated status screen.
Status Name: Lone Immortus Sex: Male Age: 26 Level: 300 Race: Golden Sky Fox of The Endless Void HP: 5,120/5,120 SP: 22,586/23,400 MP: 68,420/68,420 Basic Stats Strength: 692 Vigour: 512 Dexterity: 1,348 Agility: 1,836 Vitality: 2,340 Luck: 312 Secret Stats Charm: 104 Charisma: 180 Magic Power: 6,842 Control: 352 Rage: 35 Life: 23 (Sealed)
A few things of note had changed. Naturally, Lone had grown more powerful overall. His magic had increased by nearly a thousand while his agility had increased by just over four hundred, but what was really astonishing was that his rage stat had actually decreased by a few points while his control has stat had exploded in size by another fifty.
'This is so strange... I guess me holding back against the Wolfkin reduced my rage stat? Is that a good or bad thing?' Lone's head was full of questions with no answers to be found, so he sighed and put the matter aside for now.
"Lone," Eolande called out.
"Hmm?" Lone looked at her and the small wooden box she was holding with interest.
"I'm finished inspecting it. As far as I can tell, it's perfectly safe, but as I said before, Clicker was far stronger than me, so I'm not one-hundred percent certain it's not booby-trapped," Eolande explained as she carefully handed the box over to Lone.
"Oh well, that's better than nothing. Do you think I should open it or you should? Y'know, you can still use your extra lives while I can't," Lone asked the girl floating next to him.
She shrugged, indicating that she was fine with whatever Lone chose.
"Okay, I guess you should open it then," Lone said before handing the box back to Eolande. She then carefully opened it and a big blue screen appeared in front of everyone, even Sophie and Kyuubi who were in Lone's summoning room.